Two Dollar Radio

Last updated
Two Dollar Radio
Founded2005
FounderEric Obenauf, Eliza Wood-Obenauf, Brian Obenauf
Country of origin United States
Headquarters location Columbus, Ohio
Distribution Publishers Group West (USA)
Turnaround Publisher Services (UK)
Fiction genres Literary fiction & micro-budget film
Official website www.twodollarradio.com ; www.twodollarradiohq.com

Two Dollar Radio is an independent family-run publisher based in Columbus, Ohio. The company was founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Eric Obenauf and Eliza Jane Wood-Obenauf, with Brian Obenauf. The press specializes in literary fiction. In 2013 they launched their micro-budget film division, Two Dollar Radio "Moving Pictures." In 2017 they co-founded the annual Columbus, Ohio, arts festival The Flyover Fest. Also in 2017 (September) the press opened a brick-and-mortar named Two Dollar Radio Headquarters on the south side of Columbus, Ohio, which is a bookstore, full bar, performance space, and vegan coffeehouse and cafe, carrying Two Dollar Radio titles as well as a selection of almost exclusively independently published books.

Contents

History

In 2008, the publishers were profiled as part of Publishers Weekly’s 50 Under 40 series, which profiled young publishers. [1]

The Brooklyn Rail credits the press with publishing "some of the finest work of contemporary fiction," [2] while Publishing Perspectives called them "a budding literary movement." [3] Popular literature website HTML Giant calls Two Dollar Radio "the hippest, most adventuresome publisher in the United States." [4]

The press occasionally works with outside artists on jacket designs. Esteemed NYC artist Barbara Kruger designed the cover to Gary Indiana’s seventh novel, The Shanghai Gesture , published in April 2009. Photographer Lynn Davis provided the cover photographs for her husband Rudolph Wurlitzer’s four novels that the press has published. San Francisco-based collage artist, Aubrey Rhodes designed the jacket for Joshua Mohr’s second novel, Termite Parade, published in July 2010. Two works of art by Mat Brinkman were used in The Orange Eats Creeps — one on the cover and one as a frontispiece. Two works of art by Michael Salerno of Kiddiepunk were used in Mira Corpora, on the front and back covers, as well as frontispiece and end piece. Ricardo Cavolo's ink-on-paper piece, 1937, is featured on the cover of How to Get Into the Twin Palms.

Two Dollar Radio is distributed in the US and Canada by PGW, and in the UK by Turnaround Publisher Services.

Publishing

Authors published by Two Dollar Radio include Rudolph Wurlitzer, Jay Neugeboren, Gary Indiana, Shane Jones, Scott Bradfield, Amy Koppelman, Lawrence Shainberg, Francis Levy, Anthony Neil Smith, Joshua Mohr, Xiaoda Xiao, Grace Krilanovich, Barbara Browning, Scott Bradfield, Trinie Dalton, Jeff Jackson, Bennett Sims, Scott McClanahan, Anne-Marie Kinney, Karolina Waclawiak, among others.

The press has reissued three Rudolph Wurlitzer novels, Nog , Flats, and Quake and published Wurlitzer's first novel in 24 years, The Drop Edge of Yonder. The book was named Best Book of 2008 by Time Out New York, [5] won Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, [6] and was a Believer magazine Reader’s Choice Top-20 Pick. [7]

1940, award-winning novelist Jay Neugeboren's first new novel in two decades, was on the long list for the 2010 International Dublin Literary Award. [8]

Francis Levy’s debut novel, Erotomania: A Romance, was a Queerty Top 10 Book of 2008 [9] and named a Standout Book of the Year by Inland Empire Weekly. [10]

Joshua Mohr's first novel, Some Things That Meant the World to Me, was one of O: The Oprah Magazine's 10 Terrific Reads of 2009, [11] a Huffington Post Best Small Press Book of the Year, [12] a Nervous Breakdown Best Book of 2009, [13] and a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller. [14] His second novel, Termite Parade, was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. [15]

Grace Krilanovich, author of The Orange Eats Creeps, was selected as a National Book Foundation 2010 "5 Under 35" Honoree [16] (selected by Scott Spencer, Fiction Finalist for A Ship Made of Paper, 2003; Fiction Finalist for Endless Love, 1980 and 1981). The Orange Eats Creeps was selected as one of Amazon.com's Best Books of 2010 in the category of Science Fiction & Fantasy, [17] was named a Top 10 Book of 2010 by Shelf Unbound, [18] was a NPR Best Books of 2010, [19] and a The Believer Book Award Finalist in 2010. [20]

Barbara Browning's debut novel, The Correspondence Artist, won a Lambda Literary Award and an Independent Books Publishers Award for Literary Fiction, while her second novel, I'm Trying to Reach You, was a The Believer Book Award Finalist in 2012. [21]

Bennett Sims' debut novel, A Questionable Shape, won the Bard Fiction Prize for 2014, awarded by Bard College. [22]

Sarah Rose Etter's 2019 novel The Book of X was longlisted for the Believer Book Award. [23]

Film

In 2013, the company announced the formation of a micro-budget film division, Two Dollar Radio Moving Pictures, [24] an expansion that the Tribeca Film Festival speculated could be "a real watershed moment in film." [25]

The initial three films in pre-production are I'm Not Patrick, written and to be directed by the company's editorial director, Eric Obenauf, The Removals, written by Nicholas Rombes and to be directed by Grace Krilanovich, and The Greenbrier Ghost, written by and to be directed by Scott McClanahan and Chris Oxley, based upon the true story of the Greenbrier Ghost.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff VanderMeer</span> American writer (born 1968)

Jeff VanderMeer is an American author, editor, and literary critic. Initially associated with the New Weird literary genre, VanderMeer crossed over into mainstream success with his bestselling Southern Reach Series. The series' first novel, Annihilation, won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards, and was adapted into a Hollywood film by director Alex Garland. Among VanderMeer's other novels are Shriek: An Afterword and Borne. He has also edited with his wife Ann VanderMeer such influential and award-winning anthologies as The New Weird, The Weird, and The Big Book of Science Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Eggers</span> American writer, editor, and publisher (born 1970)

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.

Rudolph "Rudy" Wurlitzer is an American novelist and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alyson Books</span> American publishing house

Alyson Books, formerly known as Alyson Publications, was a book publishing house which specialized in LGBT fiction and non-fiction. Former publisher Don Weise described it as "the world's oldest and largest publisher of LGBT literature" and "the home of award-winning books in the areas of memoir, history, humor, commercial fiction, mystery, and erotica, among many others".

<i>The Believer</i> (magazine) American magazine

The Believer is an American bimonthly magazine of interviews, essays, and reviews, founded by the writers Heidi Julavits, Vendela Vida, and Ed Park in 2003. The magazine is a five-time finalist for the National Magazine Award.

Stephen Michael Erickson is an American novelist. The author of influential works such as Days Between Stations, Tours of the Black Clock and Zeroville, he is the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award and a Guggenheim fellowship.

Laird Samuel Barron is an American author and poet, much of whose work falls within the horror, noir, or horror noir and dark fantasy genres. He has also been the managing editor of the online literary magazine Melic Review. He lives in Upstate New York.

John Kenneth Muir is an American literary critic. As of 2022, he has written thirty reference books in the fields of film and television, with a particular focus on the horror and science fiction genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Cohen (writer)</span> American novelist and story writer

Joshua Aaron Cohen is an American novelist and story writer, best known for his works Witz (2010), Book of Numbers (2015), and Moving Kings (2017). Cohen won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Netanyahus (2021).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Connolly (author)</span> Irish author, primarily of detective fiction

Dr John Connolly is an Irish writer who is best known for his series of novels starring private detective Charlie Parker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Lerner</span> American writer

Benjamin S. Lerner is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. The recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, Lerner has been a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among many other honors. Lerner teaches at Brooklyn College, where he was named a Distinguished Professor of English in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Lama</span> Fictional pulp magazine hero

The Green Lama is a fictional pulp magazine hero of the 1940s, created by American author Kendell Foster Crossen. He is commonly portrayed as a powerful Buddhist Lama, dressing in green robes with a red scarf and using his powerful skill set to fight crime. Slightly different versions of the same character also appeared in comic books and on the radio. Unlike many contemporary characters from smaller publishers, the Green Lama character is not in the public domain, as the author "wisely retained all rights to his creation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom McCarthy (novelist)</span> English writer and artist (born 1969)

Tom McCarthy is an English writer and artist. In the wake of Brexit, he gained Swedish citizenship. His debut novel, Remainder, was published in 2005. McCarthy has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and was awarded the inaugural Windham-Campbell Literature Prize by Yale University in 2013. He won a Believer Book Award for Remainder in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Yu</span> American writer (born 1976)

Charles Chowkai Yu is an American writer. He is the author of the novels How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and Interior Chinatown, as well as the short-story collections Third Class Superhero and Sorry Please Thank You. In 2007 he was named a "5 under 35" honoree by the National Book Foundation. In 2020, Interior Chinatown won the National Book Award for fiction.

Shane Jones is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He has published three novels, two books of poetry, and one novella.

Francis Levy is the author of the comic novels Erotomania: A Romance, published by Two Dollar Radio in 2008 and subsequently translated in a Spanish edition in 2009, and Seven Days in Rio, published by Two Dollar Radio in 2011. Levy is also the co-founder of the Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination. He has been profiled in The East Hampton Star, AIGA Voice, Nerve.com, and elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Mohr</span>

Tim Mohr is a New York-based translator, writer, and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grace Krilanovich</span> American writer

Grace Krilanovich is an American author. Her first novel, The Orange Eats Creeps was published by Two Dollar Radio in September 2010. It was selected as one of Amazon's Best Books of the Year (2010) in the category of Science Fiction & Fantasy and was named a Top 10 Book of 2010 by Shelf Unbound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Makkai</span> American writer (born 1978)

Rebecca Makkai is an American novelist and short-story writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carola Dibbell</span> American music journalist and author

Carola Dibbell is an American music journalist and author.

References

  1. ↑ Andriani, Lynn. "50 Under 40: Indie publishers in the Midwest ", Publishers Weekly , May 5, 2008. Accessed September 27, 2009.
  2. ↑ , Gottlieb, Benjamin. "Seven Days in Rio", The Brooklyn Rail , November 2, 2011.
  3. ↑ Duhr, David. "Over-turning the Lemonade-stand Culture of Literature", Publishing Perspectives, February 8, 2013.
  4. ↑ Minor, Kyle. "Two Dollar Radio Expands Into Film Production", HTML Giant, September 24, 2013.
  5. ↑ Miller, Michael. "Books: The best (and worst) of 2008", Time Out New York , December 18, 2008. Accessed September 27, 2009.
  6. ↑ "2008 Foreword INDIES Winners in Literary (Adult Fiction)", Foreword Reviews , Accessed October 29, 2018.
  7. ↑ "The Believer Book Award, READER SURVEY RESULTS", The Believer , March, 2009. Accessed October 2, 2009. #19—The Drop Edge of Yonder—Rudolph Wurlitzer
  8. ↑ "The 2010 Award", International Dublin Literary Award, November 2, 2009. Accessed October 6, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Top 10 Books of '08 That Belong on A Gay's Bookshelf", Queerty.com , December 30, 2008. Accessed October 2, 2009. #3— Erotomania by Francis Levy
  10. ↑ Kohlhaase, Bill. "Read This!", Inland Empire Weekly, December 30, 2008. Accessed October 2, 2009
  11. ↑ "10 Terrific Reads of 2009", O: The Oprah Magazine , November 18, 2009. Accessed March 19, 2010. #8—Some Things That Meant the World to by Joshua Mohr
  12. ↑ "The Year's 9 Best Books From Small Publishers", Huffington Post , December 31, 2009. Accessed March 19, 2010. #1—Some Things That Meant the World to by Joshua Mohr
  13. ↑ " Best Books of 2009 ", The Nervous Breakdown , December 14, 2009. Accessed March 19, 2010. #10—Some Things That Meant the World to by Joshua Mohr
  14. ↑ "San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers June 14, 2009", San Francisco Chronicle , June 14, 2009. Accessed October 6, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Editors' Choice", New York Times Book Review , July 30, 2010. Accessed Sept 24, 2010.
  16. ↑ "The National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” Fiction, 2010", National Book Foundation, October 5, 2010. Accessed October 5, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Top 10 Books: Science Fiction & Fantasy", Amazon.com, November 4, 2010. Accessed November 5, 2010.
  18. ↑ "Shelf Unbound indie book review magazine’s Top 10 Books of 2010" Archived 2010-11-30 at the Wayback Machine , Shelf Unbound, November 18, 2010. Accessed November 19, 2010
  19. ↑ "Weird And Wonderful Books: 2010's Hidden Gems" NPR , December 21, 2010. Accessed November 13, 2011
  20. ↑ The Believer (magazine) , March/April 2011. Accessed November 13, 2011.
  21. ↑ The Believer (magazine) , March/April 2013.
  22. ↑ Bard College .
  23. ↑ "The Believer Book Awards: Editors' Longlists". Believer Magazine. Retrieved 2020-01-19.
  24. ↑ Kirch, Claire. "Two Dollar Radio Expands Into Film Production", Publishers Weekly , September 22, 2013.
  25. ↑ Wigon, Zachary. "Racking Focus: Two Dollar Radio and the Next Step for Micro-Budget Cinema", Tribeca Film Festival Future of Film, October 15, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.